September Moon (Alexa O'Brien, Huntress #8)(63)

Kylarai was one of the nicest people I knew. She was also a passive aggressive werewolf who had killed her own abusive husband. If she didn’t want to listen, I couldn’t make her.

“Fine. Just remember, if anything happens to you, it will haunt me forever.”

It didn’t take long for me to hightail it across the river to the downtown core where my nightclub sat like a pulsing, living entity drawing in victims like moths to a flame. Jez and Kylarai had taken Ky’s Escalade. It seemed safer to drive alone in my car in case of a ballsy street attack.

Both Arys’s Firebird and Kale’s Camaro sat in the parking lot when I turned in with a screech of tires. Already? The sun hadn’t been down all that long. Kale had probably spent the day here fornicating and feeding. Arys was definitely waiting for me.

“Shit.” I pulled into the closest available spot and jumped out of the car. After fetching the Dragon Claw from the trunk, I headed inside, slinging it around my waist as I went.

Justin looked up from where he stood checking I.D. to give me a nod. I skidded to a stop beside him. “The Feds are on their way. Don’t let them in. Tell them to wait outside and let me know when they get here.”

I waited for him to nod in understanding before slipping away, dodging between people as I went. Arys was at the bar with Willow and Jenner. Kale was nowhere to be seen, meaning he was in the back.

Having Arys within my sights brought on a surge of strength and confidence. The scattered thoughts and emotions that had plagued me on the way over were silenced. He turned to me with a dark brow raised expectantly, and against my will I swooned just a little.

“I was wondering when you’d show up,” he said, that deep-blue gaze traveling over me.

“Look, Arys, I don’t have time to get into what happened last night. Briggs is on his—”

He pulled me close and laid one hell of a kiss on me. Aggressive, needy, passionate, and even vulnerable, it set butterflies loose in my stomach. Swept up in the power of that sudden sensual act, I slid a hand into his hair and kissed him back with an urgency that rivaled his own.

When at last we pulled apart, I became embarrassingly aware of our small audience. Kylarai and Jez had just arrived to join Willow and Jenner as they waited for us to come back to our senses.

“I don’t think this is the best time for some hot vampire action,” Jez quipped. “Survive now. Screw later.”

“What’s going on?” Arys held tight to my hand as if afraid to let go.

“Briggs is on his way here to kill me,” I heard myself say. I repeated the gist of my conversation with the FPA agent, which earned immediate protests from both Arys and Willow. While they made claims of making the FPA sorry for such an attempt, I was wondering if Kale was sane enough to keep Kylarai out of harm’s way.

Deciding against that idea, I determined it would be best if Kale never emerged from his den of debauchery in the back. I wasn’t sure he’d survive another confrontation with the FPA.

“Like I was saying back in Vegas,” Jenner piped up. “You need to have the FPA working for you. If they won’t do it willingly, you have to force them into it. Get some dirt on the right guy at the top, and they’ll be all yours.”

“That actually makes sense,” I admitted. “Right now the only dirt I have is that Agent Briggs is doing my sister. I doubt that’s good enough to make him see things my way.”

“Then find something bigger.”

Jenner was right. Blackmail might just be the only way to get through to a guy like Briggs. It was worth a try anyway. If I could just find the right tidbit of dirt.

Arys pulled me aside so we could speak privately. I noticed that both Willow and Jenner watched us closely.

“You told Willow about last night, didn’t you?” I said, my gaze darting toward the door in anticipation.

“I had to. He needs to be aware of how close I came to losing it. That can’t happen again. Not until the right time. I don’t want to blow this, but I can’t help but want it.” Arys leaned his forehead against mine and sighed. “It’s gotten so much harder than I thought it would be. I feel like I should hate myself, but I don’t. I just want you.”

A chill stole over me. Nothing quite like having my lover confess that he can’t wait to kill me. “I know. It terrifies me, but I get it. At least, I think I do.” I breathed in his cologne, finding the scent now triggered the memory of every time he had ever treated me as prey.

He reached to pull the clip from my hair. It tumbled down, a mess of long ash blonde which he plunged his hands into. “I knew this would be hard, but I never dreamed it would be this bad. I don’t want to lose what we have.”

“We won’t. We will always be one. You know that.” I leaned into his touch, finding comfort in the same hands that would kill me.

“It will be different though. All dark. I can handle it. I’m already there. But you belong to the light, my beautiful Hound. I don’t want darkness for you.” The emotion in his touch was an echo inside me. It brought too many things to the surface that we had no time to deal with right then.

I thought about the yin yang balance between us. There was a spark of my light in him. I had seen it there, small but significant. It kept him from being all monster. I would mourn the loss of that.

“I don’t want it for you either,” I said, stuffing an onslaught of worry and fear back down inside me. “You’re not all dark either. Not yet.”